Why Does My Child Have To Smoke His Medical Marijuana?

Liam McKnight is six years old and suffers from severe epilepsy. He tried 10 anti-epileptic medications and a special diet before his mother got him a prescription for medical marijuana.

“Since starting cannabis he has seen a 99 per cent reduction in his seizures, going from 60 plus seizures a day, to sometimes none or maybe one seizure a day,” Mandy McKnight says. Marijuana is believed to help control some forms of epilepsy.

But there’s a problem.

McKnight is breaking the law by giving her son his marijuana in the form of an extract. Under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, which came into place on April 1 this year, only the dried form of marijuana that is smoked or vaporized is legal.

In a new feature on CBC News Network’s Power & Politics that invites Canadians to send in questions for decision-makers, McKnight asked the federal government to explain the law.

“Why won’t the government of Canada allow Liam to have access to his medication in a form of delivery suitable for a six-year old? Why does our six-year old son have to smoke cannabis?” McKnight said in a video sent in to Power & Politics’ My QP.